Two years of the Drug Discovery Hub: our anniversary symposium

On 19 June 2026, the LMS/Imperial Drug Discovery Hub held its inaugural symposium at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences, and it felt like the right way to mark the occasion. Two years in, the Hub has grown into a genuine collaborative community spanning Imperial College London and the MRC LMS, and the symposium was an opportunity to bring that community together in one room.

Invited talks from across the Imperial and LMS community covered a broad range of themes: Andrew Edwards on antibiotic resistance; Kaloyan Takov on cardiovascular disease; Enrique Martinez-Perez on meiosis research; Alexis Barr on cell cycle control; and Ed Tate on chemical biology and chemical proteomics. The range of science on show was a good reflection of the breadth of drug-relevant biology happening across both institutions.

The program also included flash presentations from postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, showcasing the quality of early-career research being done within the Hub's orbit.

The symposium was closed by a keynote from Hannah Semple of AstraZeneca's High-throughput Screening lab and Open Innovation team, offering an industry perspective on how large-scale screening approaches are evolving and where academia–industry collaboration can have the most impact.

The two-year mark feels like a natural moment to reflect. The Hub was set up to bridge the gap between fundamental biology and translational drug discovery, to make Imperial and LMS's combined capabilities more visible and more accessible - to each other, and to external partners. The symposium was a small but tangible sign that this is working.

Thank you to all the speakers, attendees, and everyone who helped organise the day. Here's to the next two years.